night I heard him say that our great and wise Rabbi,
Moses ben Maimon, had taught that Jesus had overthrown heathen
idolatry; that he was not Messias, but his fore-runner!

"It was late at night ere we went to rest. I slept in a room adjoining
that of my parents. Thus I heard my father say to my mother:--

"'How wretched we Jews are! there is that splendid man, so loyal, so
good-hearted, Conrad Grassler, returned. He has worked his way up to a
captaincy, and retired on a major's pension, and now here he comes and
asks for our Rosalie. If the good man were only of our faith, if he
were a Jew, how gladly would I give him my child! I could not desire a
better husband for her; but, as it is, it cannot be, and God forgive my
sin in thinking of it!'

"I heard this from my chamber, and that night, though I was still under
my parents' roof, my spirit was already far away, out into the wide
world, where the officers lived, and the soldiers, and those who owned
it.

"Father had nothing against Conrad if it had not been for that one
thing. A voice within me repeated this all night long. And in the
morning, while my father and mother were in the synagogue, I sat alone
with my prayer-book. See this little prayer-book. It is a devotional
manual for women, composed by my father--but my thoughts were not upon
it. How still it was! I was alone in the house. No one was to be seen
in the streets, for the whole community was at the synagogue. I seated
myself in the middle of the room; I did not wish to look out of the
window; Conrad would surely be passing by.

"But how did he look? How wonderful that he had kept that promise made
to me in my childhood! What had he become? How would I seem to him?

"Then, I cannot tell how it was, but as I was standing at the window,
looking out, I saw Conrad, grown into a noble-looking man. I withdrew
from the window, but then, came footsteps on the stairway, and my heart
throbbed as though it would burst. Conrad stood alone in the world; he
is a military orphan."

A smile passed round the circle of listeners, and Fraeulein Milch went
on:--

"I told Conrad what my father had said to my mother, the night before.
I could give him up for my parents' sake; but he was not in duty bound
to renounce me, and I had not the right to relinquish for him, and it
was settled that I should elope with him.

"My father returned from the synagogue, and I have never felt a heavier
sorrow than when he laid his ha